Search Engine Marketing – Content Matching

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Content Matching
January 30, 2006

Yet another round of news articles on the perils of content matching as a Search Engine Marketing strategy have been given substantial attention by the media these past few days.

Content matching is a pay-per-click option where PPC providers (ie. Google AdSense, Yahoo! Content Match™, etc) place ads on non-search-engine websites that contain content that ‘matches’ the ads. The ‘very sound’ idea behind this concept is that people who are interested enough in a given subject to be visiting a page devoted to the subject should be ideal target customers for the ads in question. For example, if your ad is for cookware, then a website devoted to cooking should be a good place for your ads to be shown. Everything we know about marketing tells us this is sound thinking. However, the current methods of paying the websites who display the ads – seems to be attracting internet villains who are practicing fraud. Not in every case, by any means, but sufficiently enough for many Search Engine Marketing agencies (ours included) to not normally recommend content matching.

In general, content matching works like this, a website owner contacts a PPC provider who runs a contextual matching program. The PPC provider then checks to ensure the website is bona fide (there are varying degrees of checking performed by the PPC provider to ensure the legitimacy of the website). After contracts are signed, the PPC provider begins to display appropriate ads on the website, with the understanding that when an ad is clicked on, the website will be paid a percentage of the money the ad advertiser has paid to the PPC provider.

“Everything we know about marketing tells us this is sound thinking. However...”

It did not take the less scrupulous of the internet long to realize that all they had to do was build content friendly websites and click on the ads on their sites to make money. Of course, the PPC providers were quick to identify and stop those site owners who began clicking the ads themselves – so began a dance, with the dishonest site owners seemingly always one step ahead of the PPC providers. Unlike many, I honestly believe that PPC providers are doing their best to clean up this problem. I realize that PPC providers make money on these fraudulent transactions, however in the long run – it is their reputations and the continuation of content matching that is at risk.

One of my co-workers delights in pointing out articles and stories about content matching frauds. Every time he shares the latest fraud – those of us in Sponsored Search say – “And that is why we do not normally recommend content matching to our clients”.

Some of the content matching frauds that have come to light:

Programs that used IP proxies to click on content matched ads.
Networks of clickers who are paid to click on content matched ads. Please note that while the Indian networks are the most well known – there are similar schemes all over the world.
Software that invades unsuspecting computers and then turns the computer into click-robots that click on content matched ads.

My personal favorite was the website that sent out e-mails inviting people to click on the ads on their site, promising a portion of the money earned would go to charity. Encouraging people to commit fraud in the remote hope that a charity would benefit – the mind boggles.

These - and many other sad examples of fraudulent behavior - are why “we do not normally recommend content matching to our clients .”

Brenda Wright
Head Sponsored Search Strategist
Search Engine Positioning by Searchengineposition
Enquiro Full Service Search Engine Marketing
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